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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

I recently interviewed Brian Duffy of The Boeing Company to
talk about the ins and outs of leadership in today’s competitive business
landscape. Duffy is a speaker at the upcoming ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business
Analysts 2014 conference in Seattle. He will be presenting a workshop
alongside Joe Reid entitled, “Requirements Management Best Practices at the
Boeing Company.”

Check out what Duffy had
to say:

IIR: Can you name
a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Why and how did
this person impact your life?

Duffy: The best
leader I worked for rallied the organization around a vision, worked with the
leadership team to collaboratively develop a strategic plan to move the
organization toward the vision, and used project management principles to turn
the strategic plans into project plans. That’s when I made a career change
to move into a project manager role.

IIR: How do you
help a new employee understand the culture of your organization?

Duffy: As a
project office we have developed a team operating plans that describe our
products and services and our intended use of management best practices to run
the organization. It helps orient new employees that we have a strong
emphasis on creating value for the company. We consistently ask our
internal customers how specifically our products and services are helping them
achieve bottom-line business results.

IIR: What is the
biggest challenge facing leaders today?

Duffy: I think
leaders today need to recognize that the up and coming work force is entering
the workplace better equipped to be more productive due to their technological savvy
and with an ability to come up with wildly creative solutions to
problems. The organizations that leverage that most effectively will
rapidly see improvement in business results.

Duffy will be
speaking at ProjectWorld & World
Congress for Business Analysts, taking place in Seattle, Washington
September 22-24th at the W Hotel. The 2014 program is designed with courses for
all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible lessons
which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office, making you
even more valuable to your organization. PW&WCBA offers attendees 36
PDU/CDUs - that's more than half of the required credits necessary to maintain
your certification in just one place.